St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-11-30
THE COAL MONOPOLY,

This is getting to be peculiar sort of
paternal government after all. There
was time when a proposition to give
the government control, or even super
vision, of any department of industrial
life would have been looked upon us
Sacrilege. But combination of circum-
stances has driven us long way from
that idea. In the days when the gov
eminent was founded there were no
railroads and no telegraphS, and the
founders of the government didn't
seem TO have the remOteSt idea that
there ever would be. The progress OF
the physical sciences has advanced us
along, however, until we have drifted
out of the old world in which our fathers
lived, and we are now yirtu-
ally in a new national existence.
1t is fortunate for us that in
the absence OF any constitutional
protection against the new form of
tyranny that has arisen to Cypress US,
our fathers had the wisdom to repose
the sovereignty of the government in
the hands of the people, and they are
now able to exercise that sovereign
power in defense of popular rights.
The passage of the interstate commerce
bill was the first direct effort i'll eStab-
fishing the principle that the people
have the right to originate measures TO
meet eXigencies that were not provided
for in the constitution. With the
establishment of that principle
numerous other eases rise i'll
rapid succession demanding its
application. Prominent among
them is the telegraph system of the
country, which has grown.into monop-
oily of such gigantic proportions that
nothing short of the strong arm of the
government itself can control it. 1t has
passed the boundary where competition
can be brought into successful play, and
all that is left for the people to do in
their own protection is to assert their
sovereign power by establishing their
own telegraph system under the imme-
date control of the government Of their
own choosing. Then there is another
new form of tyranny that has arisen,
more cruel and more exacting than any
thing in monopOliStic form that has yet
reared its head in this country of free
institutions. 1t is the coal mo-
nopOly. The coal barons are
the most brutal of all the
monopOlistic bandits that have infested
this land. They spare neither age nor
sex. They rob the widow of her pit
lance with as little remorse as they pick
the pockets of the millionaire. There
is only one way TO put an end TO their
depredatiOnS, and that is by using the
power of the government to crush them.
These robbers fOrtify themselves be-
hind the state rights doctrine that the
general government has not the right
to invade state for the purpose of reg
ulating the price of its products. The
Pennsylvania coal baron laughs the
government to S3Orn in his i'm
agined security, as he entrenches
himself behind this constitutional
breastwOrk. But fortunately, according
to the theory of all government, there is
such thing as the right of eminent do
main. 1t is the power of sovereignty
which in this country is lodged with the
people. Under instructions of the PEG
pie the government has the right to take
possession of the coal mines and to OPP
crate them in the interest of the public.
1t would be taking long step toward a
paternal form of government to do such
a thing, but this seems to be an ext
gency where long strides on the part of
the sovereign people are necessary to
L 1 i l.
have TO be done sooner or later, for we
have about reached that point where the
government will have to take possession
of the coal lands, or the coal barOns will
take possession of the government and
freeze the people out.